Coping under a COVID-19 lockdown: patterns of daily coping and individual differences in coping repertoires

Background: Polyregulation-the concurrent or sequential use of multiple strategies to regulate affect or cope with stressors-is a frequent but understudied phenomenon. Objectives: We aimed to identify patterns of daily coping and individuals' coping repertoires (i.e., range of coping patterns employed across situations) during a COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. We investigated day-level covariates (appraisals, worrying, mood) of daily coping patterns and person-level covariates (psychopathology, average mood) of coping repertoires. Design: A non-representative community sample (n = 322, 15-82 years old) participated in a 21-day ambulatory assessment study. Methods: We applied multilevel latent class analysis.. Results: We identified seven daily coping patterns and ten classes of individuals differing in the size of their coping repertoire and their propensity for polyregulation. Daily coping patterns differed in daily perceived controllability and mood (but not in daily worrying or stress). At the person level, individuals with a higher level of average coronavirus-related worrying more frequently engaged in a high degree of polyregulation. The size of individuals' coping repertoire was unrelated to psychopathology and average mood. Conclusion: The findings provide insights into the composition of daily coping patterns and individuals' coping repertoires during crisis periods and contribute to a new polyregulation perspective on coping.